


Rule Number 1: Never Date Your Roommate

by pandaibo (celestialcynic)



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: M/M, On Hiatus
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-06
Updated: 2016-09-26
Packaged: 2018-08-13 09:36:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7971988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celestialcynic/pseuds/pandaibo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jeonghan decided to move into a student residence for his final year of his undergraduate degree at university. Seungcheol, his abnormally attractive roommate, is almost too flirty for him to handle. On top of that, Seungcheol keeps getting up at night to do strange things, but never seems to remember any of his actions the next day. All Jeonghan wants to do is graduate at the end of the year, and not fall in love with his charming roommate. Is that too much to ask for?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Jeonghan Meets His Roommate

Jeonghan usually didn't get nervous, but today he was. Today, was the day he was supposed to move into his dorm room for university. Determined to save money, for the first 3 years of university, he had commuted to school almost every single day. By the end of the third year, he knew there was no way he was going to keep commuting from home. Although the thought of sharing a dorm room with a random stranger was not appealing at all, Jeonghan figured it would be worth all the hours that would be freed up by the lack of commute to-and-from both class and work. It was also his last year of being an undergraduate student, so why not live life a little? 

He had made numerous lists weeks ahead of time. Three days before he was due to move in, he had already finished packing. He also knew that the housing office was open at 7:30am. Not wanting to seem too eager, he decided to get there by 8:45am. It was somewhat early, but probably not too early to get him weird looks from the staff. 

Jeonghan got his keys without any hassle, seeing as absolutely no other dorm residents had decided to move in so early on a weekend. To his horror, he realised his dorm room was on the fifth floor, with absolutely no elevators in sight. Lugging two heavy suitcases up five flights of stairs was not going to end well. 

Sure enough, halfway to the second floor, he was already breathing heavily and starting to sweat. By the time he reached the fifth floor, which happened to also be the top floor, he was drenched in sweat. He passed by the first two doors, which had blank whiteboards on them.

He stopped to stare at the third and last door - his room. He was so sure he was going to be the first to move in. However, the whiteboard stuck to the front of his door told him otherwise. 

In large, spiky letters, "S.Coups" was scrawled across. There wasn't much space left for him to add his own name to it, which irked him a little bit. What did S.Coups even mean? If he had to take a guess, Jeonghan thought maybe his roommate was foreign. 

With his hands fully preoccupied, he blew strands of hair out of his face, only to have them fall back in place. He juggled the papers and bags into one hand, and grabbed the keys he had just received from the Student Housing front desk. As soon as he got the door unlocked, he awkwardly pushed down on the door handle with his elbow and kicked the door open. 

It was a typical dorm layout, with two twin beds tucked into opposite corners by the windows. Jeonghan noticed a large duffel bag sitting on the bed on the left. He hurried in to toss his armful of crap onto the other empty bed. 

Between the beds, were two desks side by side. Looking back at the door he came in, which heavily swung shut as soon as he walked in, two separate closet doors were set into the walls on either side of the main door. A door between the end of his bed and his closet most likely lead to the bathroom.

Somewhat relieved that the room seemed to be quite spacious for a dorm room, Jeonghan went back for the two suitcases he had left right outside the door. Thankfully, his roommate was currently no where to be seen. Jeonghan immediately started unpacking. 

Within the hour, Jeonghan had tucked every single item away to a place where it belonged. Shoving his suitcases under his bed, he was feeling much happier with everything so organised. He decided to take a victorious shower before his afternoon shift at the campus coffee shop. 

Although the building seemed fairly new, Jeonghan immediately noticed the poor excuse of a showerhead in the bathroom. The water pressure was terrible, which meant it took even longer for him to rinse the suds out of his long hair. 

After towelling his hair dry, Jeonghan draped his towel around his neck and over his shoulders. He had forgotten to grab the dress shirt he had laid out on his bed for work earlier, so he stepped outside in only a pair of jeans. There was a sudden choked out high pitch scream and he briefly caught a glimpse of a blonde-haired guy flinging himself away from Jeonghan and onto the bed furthest from him, before something soft flew into his face. 

"I'm so sorry - I thought - you aren't - I think you're in the wrong room!" 

Jeonghan grabbed what turned out to be a t-shirt away from his face, and stared at the guy who was now standing with his back to Jeonghan, crouching nervously over the bed furthest from Jeonghan. The man had messy dyed blonde hair with dark roots, and was wearing an oversized white shirt and some baggy ripped up jeans. 

He was still spluttering something about Jeonghan being naked while staring profusely at the wall.

"I promise I won't look! You can get dressed - but I really think you're not in the right room - I don't even know how this happened, this is an all-boys building!" 

Ah. This honestly has happened a couple times to Jeonghan - guys mistaking him for a girl, sometimes even girls mistaking him for a girl. His long luscious hair probably didn't help, but Jeonghan didn't think it was his fault he liked to take care of his appearance. He also kind of liked the confusion it caused people. 

He pressed his lips together, trying not to laugh. He quickly stepped closer before finally saying something. 

"Why? Did you not like what you saw?" 

Stepping right up to the stranger, Jeonghan reached over to smoothly loop his hand around the man's wrist and gently squeezed. 

The effect was instantaneous. With another surprisingly high pitched screech, the blonde twisted and flung Jeonghan's hand away. He quickly shuffled backwards towards the desks and away from Jeonghan, turning to stare at him with disbelief. 

Jeonghan couldn't stop the grin from spreading across his face. Watching the man's face, he could see his expression change from one of shock, to confusion, to suspicion, and finally, to realisation. He lifted a hand up to point accusingly at Jeonghan. 

"You - you're a guy!" He spluttered.

Jeonghan laughed and stuck his hand out. "I'm assuming you're my roommate. My name is Jeonghan. Nice to meet you."

Groaning with embarrassment, the other guy shook Jeonghan's hand with a firm, warm grip. "Seungcheol. I'm such an idiot. I just wasn't expecting someone so pretty coming out of my bathroom half naked." the blonde said with a sheepish grin.

Bringing the end of his towel up to rub at his hair, he gave Seungcheol a serious look. 

"I hope you're not going to scream every time I come out of the shower. I also like to lounge around at night half naked." 

Wiping at his face, he looked back up just in time to see Seungcheol jerk his eyes back up to meet his, looking extremely guilty. Laughing, Seungcheol shook his head. 

"Now you're just being mean." 

Jeonghan smirked at him before turning away to finish getting changed. Grabbing the button up shirt he had left laid out on his bed, he slipped it on. Working on the buttons starting from the bottom, he turned back to peer at Seungcheol with curiosity.

"Are you Korean? You look mixed."

Seungcheol shuffled backwards even more and sat at the edge of his desk. 

"Nope. Korean through and through. I'm a fourth year student by the way. You?"

"I'm also a fourth year." Jeonghan grabbed a cardigan he had left on his chair, and pulled it on. "I have to go to work soon."

For some reason, the blonde looked disappointed. "Aw, really? That sucks. I was hoping to get to know you better." He lifted an arm up to scratch the back of his neck. His sleeve tightened over his shoulder, the muscles in his arm growing taut in that position. Jeonghan quickly threw away the first impression he got of Seungcheol's body - he was definitely not hiding his body in shame under those baggy clothes. 

"Actually, before you go, would you mind helping me with something?" 

Seungcheol immediately jumped up and went over to his closet to pull some objects out of it. 

"Will it take long? I don't want to be late."

"Nah, it'll be quick." Seungcheol turned back to him with a grin. He winked at Jeonghan. "Promise."

This guy... Jeonghan rolled his eyes. "All right, what do you need me to do?"

"Come with me. I just need an extra hand to keep things steady." With what looked like a toolbox in one hand, and something wrapped up in plastic in the other, he walked off to the bathroom. 

Following him, Jeonghan watched as Seungcheol carefully stepped up into the bath tub with a screwdriver in hand. With deliberate and precise movements, he reached up and started to unscrew and rapidly detach pieces of the showerhead.

"Um. Are you removing the showerhead? I kind of need that..."

Seungcheol chuckled. "Don't worry. I'm just making some improvements. I'm sure you've noticed that it gives absolute zero pressure."

"Oh god. It seriously does. It just kind of drips water on you."

Jeonghan watched with fascination as Seungcheol kept working on the nozzle. The baggy sleeves had fallen back slightly to reveal unexpectedly thick arms and a hint of muscular shoulders. From Jeonghan's point of view, it was easy to admire Seungcheol's broad back. Shaking his head a little, he realised Seungcheol was talking to him. 

"I've lived in this building for the past two years. One of the first things I learned is that the showerheads in this building are absolute crap. What I usually do is grab a cheap attachment from a department store, and usually it functions much better than this piece of junk." He paused to hand a handful of pieces to Jeonghan. "You can put these pieces in the plastic bag on the counter. Could you pass me the nozzle on the counter?" 

Dumping the pieces into the bag as he was told, he picked up the shiny new looking nozzle and held it out for Seungcheol.

Seungcheol took the nozzle and started to fiddle with it in his hands. "At the end of the year, I just put the old original showerhead back together. So don't worry, we won't get charged for defacing or anything." 

Jeonghan brightened up. "That's amazing. I'm so glad you're my roommate! You're pretty handy." 

Seungcheol grinned while still concentrating on the piece in his hand. "Yep. You're lucky to have me." Taking a second look up at the wall where the pipe protruded from, Seungcheol frowned. "Actually... maybe you should stand on the edge of the tub. It'll be easier for you to hold this up for me."

Carefully stepping up onto the edge, Jeonghan wrinkled his nose at Seungcheol. "You like to order people around, don't you?" Despite the exasperated tone in his voice, he followed Seungcheol's instructions and reached up. He fiddled with the nozzle until it sort clicked into place. Looking back down at Seungcheol expectantly, Jeonghan met his sly gaze with raised eyebrows. 

Seungcheol reached up and placed a large, strong hand over Jeonghan's, further holding the nozzle even more steadily in place. Using the screwdriver with the other hand, he quickly tightened the couple of screws that were loose around the edge of the new nozzle. 

"You're absolutely right. I like being in control." Stepping back, he gave Jeonghan a devious grin. He stepped back out of the bath tub and tossed the screw driver onto the counter. He wiped his hands down the front of his jeans and offered them up to Jeonghan. 

Taking both of his hands, Jeonghan jumped down. He leaned into Seungcheol's space, still holding onto his hands. Jeonghan took satisfaction in the way Seungcheol's charismatic composure slipped for a second. He leaned in, and smiled up at the taller boy. "Good. I like a guy who can take charge." 

He pushed past the stunned blonde. "I'll see you later. I have to go to work now." He didn't wait to hear his response, taking the opportunity to walk out with the last word. Jeonghan loved getting the last word in. 

\---

When Jeonghan got to work and was putting his apron on in the storage room, Joshua came up to him and bumped the side of their hips together to get his attention. Even though they hadn't seen each other the entire summer, they immediately fell back into their comfortable routine, used to the way each other worked from the many years of being co-workers.

"So? How was meeting your roommate?"

"Mm. Not bad. He seems nice."

Jeonghan didn't even have to look up to know that Joshua was grinning at him. Instead, he closed and locked the metal door. He took the hairband off his wrist and focused on pulling his hair back into a low ponytail. 

"That cute, huh?" 

"Oh shut up. He reminds me of a puppy. Or maybe a fox. A cute fox."

Joshua laughed. "You're in love with him!"

"I'm not! I just met the guy!" Jeonghan said, smacking his best friend on the arm. 

Laughing, Joshua backed away from Jeonghan's punches and glares.

"I'm just joking. It's just that I rarely hear you give anyone a compliment." 

"He just seems... really nice." 

Jeonghan thought about the way Seungcheol's eyes scrunched up when he laughed, about how his laugh seemed so genuine and innocent one second and then mischievous the next. He thought about the muscles that were hiding underneath his misleading clothes. He thought of how he had essentially saved him from an entire year of weak and lifeless showers. 

He thought about how screwed he was.

"Is he muscular?" Joshua waggled his eyebrows at him. "You tend to find muscular guys 'really nice'. Have you noticed that?" 

"I - I do not - okay well, what's so wrong about appreciating someone's strength?" He coughed and cleared his throat twice. "Look, it's not like I'm going to do anything with him. I have to live with him for the whole year, I'm not an idiot." 

"Whatever. Just make sure you didn't give him the wrong idea. The last thing you need is your roommate asking you out on a date."

Joshua laughed and walked out, ready to start the shift. He left Jeonghan to stew in his own personal turmoil. Jeonghan wasn't an idiot, but maybe he had been a bit too flirty earlier. Hopefully Seungcheol didn't think he was coming on to him. A little bit of flirting never did anyone harm... It didn't help that Jeonghan liked to tease people. Jeonghan took a moment to pray that this wouldn't come back to bite him in the ass.


	2. Chapter 2

That night, Jeonghan came back to his room to find a giant tv sitting on his desk and four pairs of eyes staring back at him from Seungcheol's bed. There were four guys squeezed on top of the twin bed, including Seungcheol himself. The blonde was sitting in the middle between the foreign looking boy in the corner, and another handsome boy with long legs that stretched way past the edge of the bed. At the end of the bed, next to the tall one, was a solemn looking guy with circular glasses. They had angled the screen sitting on the desk towards them. 

There was a split second before the tall handsome one made a sound of acknowledgement.  "Oh, I see what you mean now, Seungcheol." His face broke into a feral grin and he gave a sharp nudge to the guy sitting next to him at the very end. "Right, Wonwoo?" 

Wonwoo gave Jeonghan a quick once over with his sharp eyes. A tiny smirk pulled at the corner of his lip. "So you're the famous Jeonghan?" 

Jeonghan felt a little like as if he had just been thrown into a pit of hyenas. Seungcheol slapped a hand to his face. He grabbed a pillow from behind, smacking the first guy in the face. 

"Oh my god... Shut up, Mingyu! I thought you were my friend!"

He threw the pillow at the now giggling Mingyu before hopping off the bed. "Don't listen to them! They're just a bunch of jokers." He grabbed Jeonghan's wrist and pulled him from where he was hesitantly hovering in the doorway. Pulling him into the room, Seungcheol flashed a bright smile. "You're just in time. We're about to start a movie." 

Jeonghan smiled back weakly. Wonwoo was starting to join in with the still laughing boy. The foreign looking one looked on at the others with amusement. When he noticed Jeonghan watching him, he returned Jeonghan's hesitant smile with a slow shy smile of his own.

Seongcheol offhandedly gestured towards the bed. "This idiot here is Mingyu. That one is Wonwoo." He said, pointing at the bespectacled one at the foot of the bed. "He looks scary but he just suffers from resting bitch face syndrome. He actually cries really easily. That cutie over there is Vernon."

Simultaneously, cries of outrage and protests came from all three of the newly introduced boys. 

"It was only the ONE time! I bet you would cry too if you read it!"  

"Yo what do you mean cutie?!"

"Dude. You're the real idiot here."

Seungcheol rolled his eyes at their outbursts. He turned back to Jeonghan. "Do you wanna watch a horror movie with us? It’s one of the new ones. Its got zombies.” 

The blonde still had his hand wrapped around Jeonghan's wrist. Jeonghan looked down for a second and then back up. Seungcheol's grin faltered when Jeonghan didn't respond. He let go but leaned in to speak more privately in a hushed tone. "Hey, I'm sorry I didn't ask if this was okay first. If you want, we can move the movie party to another room. All of their rooms are actually just down the hallway."

The sound of Seungcheol's voice, low with concern, mixed with the background bickering from the other three, made Jeonghan's heart twist a little. He couldn't really remember the last time he had watched a movie with friends. He shook his head, feeling a little stifled with thoughts he never really paid attention to.

"What movie is it? I haven't really seen one in a while."

"It's a horror movie. It's got amazing reviews! But, I mean if you're not okay with horror or gore, we could always pick another..."

Hearing this, Mingyu shot up, jumping off the bed to tower over Seungcheol. "What! I've been begging for you to choose something else this whole time!" 

Seungcheol immediately turned to glower up at Mingyu, snapping  at him. "This is Jeonghan's room too, it wouldn't be fair to force him to watch something he doesn't like!" Despite the height difference, Jeonghan was surprised to see Mingyu back down with a whine. 

"You suck..." He pouted, shuffling back into his spot in bed dejectedly. He threw himself half on Wonwoo’s lap, peevishly crossing his arms. "Jeonghan, if you wanna see Seungcheol scream and hide behind a blanket, you should definitely join us." 

"Actually... I saw him scream earlier when he thought I was an overly aggressive half naked girl." Jeonghan smiled innocently at Seungcheol's look of utter betrayal. Laughing, Mingyu clutched Wonwoo with mirth. 

Vernon leaned forward, his eyes wide. ”No way... Did he actually scream?" Vernon asked, speaking up for the first time since Jeonghan had came in. 

"No! I did not scream! That's a huge exaggeration."

Jeonghan took his sweater off, tossing it onto his own empty bed. "Yeah, I think I'll stay and watch. I love horror movies." He noticed everyone else seemed to be in Pajamas, so he went to his closet to grab a pair of sweatpants and a comfortable loose long sleeved top. "I'm just gonna get changed first." 

Although he was probably in the bathroom for no longer than half a minute, as soon as he shut the door, he vaguely heard furious whispering from the other room. Once he stepped out, he threw his clothes into the hamper in his closet, pretending not to notice how Mingyu had guiltily stopped talking mid-sentence. 

Seungcheol jumped up to usher Jeonghan into the space next to Vernon. "Here, sit next to Vernon. I don't want you catching Mingyu's loser germs." 

Mingyu scoffed, putting a hand on his chest. "Excuse me. I'm not the one so terrified of girls that I run screaming from one at the tiniest sign of interest." 

Seungcheol groaned. "I didn't run away screaming... I was just taken off guard!"

Jeonghan climbed onto the bed as they bickered, trying not to feel awkward about how his entire body was sandwiched from shoulder to toe, between Seungcheol and Vernon, people he had just met for the first time that day. 

Wonwoo piped up. "Mingyu's probably just jealous that you get all these girls throwing themselves at you, and your response is always to run away." 

Jeonghan felt rather than saw Vernon lean back to look at Wonwoo. "Mingyu has plenty of girls trailing after him. His problem is that once he opens his mouth... the girls are the ones running away." 

Seungcheol smirked at Vernon. He put an arm around Jeonghan's shoulder reaching over to ruffle Vernon's hair. "My loyal Vernon, thank you for defending my honour." Jeonghan mostly felt, rather than see, Seungcheol pull his arm back. "Alright, I'm gonna start the movie. Wonwoo could you turn off the lights?"

The movie turned out to be like all the other generic American zombie movies. True to Mingyu's earlier words, it was a great opportunity for Jeonghan to see Seungcheol jump and screech at every tiny little jump scare. But, to be fair, Wonwoo, Mingyu, and Vernon were all just as jumpy and screechy as Seungcheol. 

Jeonghan was shocked by the constant collective screams and random hands and legs jerking to grab onto him or to flail past him. For example, during one of the earlier jump scare scenes when a zombie leapt out from inside a closet to surprise the main character, Vernon yelped and grabbed Jeonghan's wrist, lifting it to block his view of the screen. When he looked to his right, the other three were clutching onto each other with their legs tangled, eyes wide with fear.

At some point, when the movie started to get really tense, Seungcheol started leaning more towards Jeonghan. He was constantly peering around his right hand, which was permanently hovering in front of his face. When something truly gory happened, Seungcheol would turn his head and face Jeonghan. He figured he must be staring at him just to focus on something else other than the movie. 

When the faithful canine companion got left behind and the music increased with tension, Jeonghan turned his head at the same time as Seungcheol. They both jumped, their faces a lot closer than either expected. Jeonghan couldn't help but notice the look of discomfort flitting over the blonde's face. 

"Seungcheol," Jeonghan whispered. "Are you okay?"

Seungcheol bit his lip. Then he grimaced. "I just know the dog's going to die. I can't watch." 

Jeonghan glanced back at the screen. The camera picked that exact moment to zoom in on the zombies ripping and tearing at the dog's guts. He turned back to Seungcheol, who already knew simply from the sounds, and from Jeonghan's face. 

The blonde squeezed his eyes shit, leaning down to rest his forehead against Jeonghan's shoulder, hiding his face from the TV screen. Jeonghan put a hand on Seungcheol's head, patting his remarkably soft hair. 

Surprisingly, Jeonghan wasn’t comforting only Seungcheol by the end of the movie. When the surviving woman managed to escape at the sacrifice of her boyfriend, Jeonghan heard a sniff from his left. Without saying anything, Jeonghan laced his fingers with Vernon, squeezing his hand with support. Vernon squeezed back, tilting his head to rest it on Jeonghan’s shoulder. 

Once the movie was over, everyone slowly stood up to stretch and turn on the lights. It was almost midnight. 

“See, I knew we shouldn’t have watched that.” Mingyu yawned and said at the same time, his words almost unidentifiable. “Now Wonwoo’s gonna keep me up all night, scared of the dark.” 

Wonwoo sort of shrugged guiltily. “I’m not scared of the dark… I just don’t like gory stuff…” 

Seungcheol peered at Jeonghan. “Are you a robot? You barely flinched when the dog was eaten!”. 

Vernon nodded earnestly. “Yeah! Jeonghan isn’t scared by anything. When the first guy got ripped up, you know what he said?” Jeonghan smiled a little awkwardly, knowing exactly what he had accidentally let slip. “He said, ‘Oh so that’s how the inside of a thigh looks like.’”. 

Jeonghan laughed as everyone else groaned at him. Mingyu suddenly came over and grabbed Jeonghan’s face with his hands on either side. The taller guy leaned down till they were on the same eye level, squinting at Jeonghan.

Startled, Jeonghan stared back, eyes wide. He vaguely heard Seungcheol spluttering next to them, before the blonde shoved Mingyu away from Jeonghan. “What are you doing?!”

Mingyu pressed his lips together, a serious look on his face. “You be careful, Seungcheol. He’s got a pretty face, but a terrifying mind. He’s going to eat you alive when you’re sleeping.” He started to dissolve into laughter as he backed away. Seungcheol chased after him, grabbing him around the waist. Mingyu yelped out, “Jeonghan is basically your worst nightmare! A pretty looking boy who likes gory blood and guts!” The two of them started to do some form of fake-amateur wrestling. 

Wonwoo sighed. “Alright, let’s go guys. Mingyu, we have class at 8AM.” 

Still laughing, Mingyu came over and quickly pulled Jeonghan into a hug. “Nice to meet you! I’ll see you around.” 

Wonwoo was a little more reserved, he smiled and shook his hand politely before saying goodnight. Right as he opened the door, he turned back. “S Coups, we still owe you money for the taxi from this morning. If you come over to our room now, we can get it to you.”

Jeonghan cocked his head a little. “S Coups?” 

“Ah. That’s my nickname. I can explain it in a minute. I’ll be right back!” Seungcheol followed the other two out the door. 

Jeonghan turned expectantly towards Vernon, assuming that he would leave with the rest of them. To his surprise, he saw Vernon with a pensive look, studying the floor as he kicked his foot back and forth.

"Hey... Uh, Jeonghan." Vernon closed his mouth, a strange look on his face. 

"What's up?" 

Vernon leaned in a little, lowering his voice. "Listen, I just want to warn you. Seungcheol can be kinda... touchy."

Jeonghan frowned. "You mean... like, sensitive?"

"No, no. Uh... more like... physically. You know?"

Jeonghan stared blankly at Vernon, wondering if maybe they were both too overtired to hold a comprehensible conversation.

"Like... Okay. I'm sure you've noticed he's very touchy-feely with everyone, right?"

"I guess?" Jeonghan shrugged. 

"Yes. So. Well, when he goes to sleep, it kind of increases. Like, a lot." Vernon stopped again, biting his lip. His cheeks puffed up for a moment as he breathed out slowly. Then he plunged on, determined. "At night after he's fallen asleep, sometimes he sleepwalks. I just want you to know now so that you don't freak out if you suddenly wake up to him climbing into your bed. He's seriously harmless! So you don't have to worry. He's not trying to do anything weird. Like, he honestly doesn't remember any of the stuff he does in his sleep. It's mostly just a lot of hugging... and like. Maybe some kissing..." 

Jeonghan stared, his mouth hanging open. "What... wait, seriously? You're not pulling a prank on me, are you?" 

"No! This isn't a joke. It sounds weird but... I don't think Seungcheol has ever shared his room before university, and I guess I was his first roommate. I'm probably the first person to notice his sleepwalking habits."

"Hold on, you lived with him before? Did you tell him about it? This seems like something he should know..." 

Vernon sighed. "Yeah I tried. He didn't really take me seriously, he thought I was over exaggerating." Vernon ruffled his hair and looked upwards as if asking for strength. "I love that guy like a brother, but after living with him for two years like that... I couldn't deal with it anymore. I was getting weird dreams and waking up only to realize we were... cuddling... and I was basically dreaming about him. It was messing with my head. That's why I requested the single room for this year." Vernon was blushing by now, his entire face pink with embarrassment. 

Jeonghan gaped at him.

“Um. Also, maybe try not to let him drink too much right before he sleeps. It kind of… intensifies his… habit.” Vernon smiled apologetically. “It’s not that bad! I promise. If it ever gets too weird, let me know. I can talk to him.” 

The door swung open. Seungcheol took one look at the blushing Vernon and the stunned Jeonghan. 

“Uh. Is everything okay?” 

Vernon shook his head. “Nah. Everything’s cool. I’ll see you guys later.” He gave Jeonghan a pat on the arm and a smile that was really half grimace, then left. 

Jeonghan closed his mouth and straightened up.”I’m going to go brush my teeth.”

“Oh! We can do that together.” 

Jeonghan found it strangely intimate, brushing his teeth with someone at the end of the day. The silence was comfortable, as they were both tired enough to not quite notice it. However, that didn’t last long for Jeonghan. He determinedly focused on a random spot by the sink, trying not to look up at Seungcheol. Random images kept popping up in his head. Seungcheol crawling into bed with him. Seungcheol pressing up against him from behind. Seungcheol holding him… The bathroom suddenly felt way too small. 

Jeonghan spat into the sink and rinsed his toothbrush. He quickly went back to his bed and got in. Seungcheol came out a moment later, at a much more relaxed pace. He flicked the lights off before jumping into his own bed. They murmured goodnights to each other before silence fell again. 

Jeonghan lied there, tense. He kept waiting, wondering if Seungcheol was going to get up that night. Was it a regular thing? Did it happen often? Jeonghan told himself that he was so nervous about it because he didn’t want to mess up their seemingly good roommate relationship so far. He had eight more months of this to go. He could do this. 

He lied there for what seemed like hours, but in reality it only took him around ten minutes before he passed out. Jeonghan is actually quite skilled at many things. One of them being able to fall asleep extremely quick under any circumstances.


End file.
